Florida Unemployment Rate Rises to 11.5 Percent

With the primaries looming Tuesday, Florida politicians received an unexpected jolt on Friday when the Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI) announced that, after declining for three months, the state unemployment rate rose in July to 11.5 percent. This represents a slight increase from June when the rate stood at 11.4 percent -- with 1,055,000 Floridians out of work from a total population of 9,214,0000.

This months marginal increase in the unemployment rate is accompanied by the encouraging news of an increase in jobs, said AWI Director Cynthia Lorenzo. As our economy continues to slowly recover, we remain dedicated to supporting Floridians and their families. Most recently, our agencys efforts include expediting payments for the two recent federal unemployment compensation extensions. In less than three weeks, we have paid more than $294 million to nearly 279,0000 unemployed workers.